Tag Archives: Mohammed

I confess to ignorance regarding many facets of the Muslim religion and certainly would not knowingly do anything that might offend another person, particularly when it comes to a deep felt belief. But, there are occasions when I am lost when it comes to the ideas of a some Muslim adherents. Andrea Fuentealba, a pop singer from Chile who goes by the stage name of “Medina,” decided to offer a free concert in a suburban part of Copenhagen which is home to many Muslim immigrants. She arrived on stage and began singing when a group of about fifteen teenagers began hurling eggs at her and shouting insults. They were incensed, not only at her hot pants and suggestive sexual lyrics, but her name was the main cause of furry. They wanted to know how dare she use the name, Medina, which is the same name as the second holiest city of the Muslim religion. Medina and most of the 3,000 people in attendance tried to calm the young men, but they shouted and cursed until the singer left the stage in tears.

Medina is a common name in Chile and it is doubtful if anyone in this Catholic nation realizes the name is similar to the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. My confusion stems from the fact a high percentage of Muslim men have the name, “Mohammed” which is the name of the Prophet. Could someone explain to me why using the name of the Prophet is OK, but using the name of a city is not? You got me fellas, I have a hunch a few of the idiots throwing eggs were named, Mohammed.

Ms. Gillian Gibbons told Elizabeth Day of the Manchester Guardian the real story behind her captivity in a Sudan prison after being charged with the ridiculous crime of giving a name to a teddy bear. She said it was difficult to explain what she went through during her days of ordeal. “It’s hard to describe what it’s like. I was just terrified, absolutely terrified” being in a hot sweltering prison with dirt and noise as her constant companions. Ms. Gibbons also revealed that parents of the children knew all about the teddy bear being given a name of Mohammed and not a single one objected. “For the children, it was a member of the class,” said Ms. Gibbon, and “the parents had to ask(if their children could borrow the teddy bear for a night at home)so they write and say, ‘Can we borrow Mohammed?’ and they’re Muslim parents, so you can imagine that I had no idea at all that I’d done something wrong because none of the parents said anything.” It wasn’t until two months after the teddy bear was named that a school employee, Sara Khawad expressed her anger at the school by going to authorities and complaining about the teddy bear naming.

Ms. Gibbon noted that when first arrested, she was interrogated in Arabic, a language in which she had three weeks of instruction. According to Ms. Gibbons, at the trial, an irate prosecutor brought the offending teddy bear into the court room, placed it on a table and roared at Ms. Gibbon, “Is this the bear?” She spent the days in jail with great fear and was ridiculed by the guards for being upset, and they wanted to know why she had these feelings. “Well, I’ve lost my job, I’ve lost my home, there’s a mob baying outside that wants to kill me, I’m in prison, and I’m going to get deported, and you ask me why I’m crying?”

This entire incident is obviously a set up. The parents knew about the teddy bear being named Mohammed and not a single one uttered a word of complaint. The Sudan government could readily have contacted the school after Ms. Khawad came with her complaint, and the entire incident never would have happened. It is blatantly cleared they wanted an issue, they wanted to get a mob in the streets shouting something about England or Europeans being hostile to the Muslim religion. The “crime” of Gillian Gibbons is really the “crime” of a Sudanese government which was trying to divert attention from its “crimes in Darfur.” As Shakespeare put it, the teddy bear naming was much ado about nothing.